Saturday, January 21, 2006
Education City in the news
My biggest reason for skepticism about Qatar's Education City was that you just never heard about it in the US media. Well, CNET has just run a nice series about Education City.
I think the articles pretty well reflect what I saw and heard there. One aspect deserves highlighting:
This is really the key to understanding that Education City is for real. The universities take this academic freedom very seriously. When a rumor spread that a Jewish faculty member thought that he wouldn't be able to go to the campus, the Dean immediately got involved (the rumor wasn't true).
That's why education is the perfect way to pull the country (and, perhaps, the region) ahead. You either allow the free and open exchange of ideas by all people or you'll never be world class.
I think the articles pretty well reflect what I saw and heard there. One aspect deserves highlighting:
Early on, the Qatar Foundation and the government agreed not to interfere with academic policies or admissions, two key requirements for participating universities.
This is really the key to understanding that Education City is for real. The universities take this academic freedom very seriously. When a rumor spread that a Jewish faculty member thought that he wouldn't be able to go to the campus, the Dean immediately got involved (the rumor wasn't true).
That's why education is the perfect way to pull the country (and, perhaps, the region) ahead. You either allow the free and open exchange of ideas by all people or you'll never be world class.
// posted by Steve Ritter @ 5:53 PM 
